Student Senate 4/17

The University of Rhode Island’s Student Senate passed a bill for re-recognition of student organizations, as well as a bill concerning bylaws for Student Senate.

The bill calling for re-recognition of all clubs that completed the re-recognition process was passed unanimously.

The bill concerning bylaws as a whole was passed and clarified some of the responsibilities of the executive branch and chairs of committees. It was changed to specify that members of both the executive board and committee chairs must be iStand Bystander Awareness and Safe Zone trained.

Senator Annabel Cimbal motioned to allow the director of treasury to make motions on bills pertaining to contingency grants as this position handles the finances of Senate delegated to student organizations. This motion was passed.

Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Lulu Alryati motioned to specify that the director of operations position has to hold events pertaining to fundraising. This motion was passed.

A motion by Student Organizations Committee Chair Austyn Ramsay to change the office hour requirement for chairs of committees to four hours instead of three was passed. This was so that chairs would have double the amount of office hours that regular senators have.

A motion was made by Instruments Committee Chair John Bagley to add the responsibility of taking attendance during general Senate meetings to the moderator’s responsibilities. This motion was passed.

Senator Destiny Storm Degnan, Senator Donna Osgood, Campus Affairs Committee Chair Gage Blanchflower, Academic Affairs Committee Chair Thomas McGrath, Ramsay and Bagley were all nominated to be a part of the Summer Student Senate. The elections of these individuals to the Summer Student Senate will be held during next week’s meeting.

This body of seven will spend their time working on the bylaws so that the Student Senate won’t have to spend as much time on them during the fall semester.

Director of Treasury Joseph Lachance motioned to have the Summer Student Senate present a report of all of the changes made to the bylaws to the Student Senate at their first meeting of the fall semester. This motion was passed after debate and hesitation from some senators over the authority of the Summer Student Senate to make changes to the bylaws that apply to the greater Student Senate.

“It’s just about the collaborative process of, like, this pertaining to all of us but not all of us getting a voice on it,” said Lantagne.

Elections for the Elections Committee were held during the meeting. External Affairs Chair Allison Lantagne, Senator Katie Siegle, Senator Zack Nardone, Ramsay, and Blanchflower were all elected to the committee.

Bills calling for URI Amnesty International, Landscape Architecture and Design Studio, Japanese Club, Latinx in Computing, Active Minds, Her Campus URI and Exercise is Medicine to be recognized by the Student Senate as student organizations will be voted on next week.

A motion by Cimbal was made to strike a bill calling for contingency grant for $1,925 for the Muslim Student Association because the group decided to step back from the event and did not need the money anymore. This motion was passed.

The Student Senate had only 17 members present at the beginning of the meeting as most of the members of the executive board were at the Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Awards Banquet.